Shirt Design #2

T-Shirt Design

I'm designing our cast t-shirt (I'm in a play at our local theater.) I'm hoping to design 5 and let the cast vote on which they like best. Here's option #1.

Great Quote

I browse a fair amount. I like to see what CCP artists are up to and how people are really benefiting from their amazing workshops. In doing so today I came across Matchatank Deb, and on her blog she had a quote from Albert Einstein. She's using it in a piece she started in Lisa Engelbrecht's workshops. I love love (love) the quote:

"You cannot solve a problem on the same level you created it."

Something to live by. Thanks Matchatank Deb!

Virginia Cobb's, "Acrylic Abstract Image" on Sale

Abstract Acrylic Painting: The Evolving Image with Virginia Cobb from Creative Catalyst on Vimeo.


This week's sale is Virginia Cobb's art instructional workshop, "Acrylic Abstract Image: The Evolving Image."

Virginia Cobb's DVD is a bit different from most of Creative Catalyst's workshops. Instead of focusing on technique, it explores the discovery process that goes on inside our heads. Virginia creates three paintings from the same inspiration but emphasizes a different element of design in each painting: shape, line and texture. The results are amazingly different. She layers, covers, and re-discovers shapes and colors. Her process creates a sense of history and permanence. Watch as she adds layers but, more importantly, listen to how she thinks about what she is doing.

Virginia's artistic process relies on problem solving. She challenges herself by constantly creating problems, which forces her to discover solutions. It keeps her art fresh and original.

I had never really thought about this approach. Normally I look at problems in my work and think, "$%&! Oh look. Another failure." But Virginia actually propels off of problems to keep her paintings fresh and original. That is SUCH a better way to look at it. (Also more kid friendly.)

Carla O'Connor Visit

Zach and I pulled our bikes into work this morning and had the pleasant surprise of finding Washington plates on an unfamiliar car. Carla O'Connor and her husband, Mike, were visiting. We love when artists film with us and even while we have a lot of fun we still have to concentrate. Filming leaves the artists tired and the week burns people out. When artists just arrive at our door and can hang out, it's a whole new ball game. It was great to just sit and talk with both Carla and Mike. We swapped pet stories and painting stories and had a really nice time. This job has a lot of perks (like there is a cat sleeping next to me in my office at this very moment) but meeting the people we get to meet is really one of the best.

(Artwork by Carla O'Connor.) See more at Carla's gallery.

Purple Background Collage

Napkin Paper

I'm currently experimenting with napkin collage. Napkins come in so many cool colors and designs I'm trying to see if I can use the patterns to make background textures. Here's my first. It needs more paint (and then of course something on top.)

I used a ton of Mod Podge and napkins. Most napkins have a few layers and only the top one actually has a pattern. Peel the other ones off before you go to glue anything down. They will only get in the way. I used a tiny bit of water to get my strips of napkin to stick to the paper. Then I covered everything with a ton of Mod Podge. Finally I began with my layers of paint.

Happy Father's Day (yesterday)

simple card

Polly Hammett says find three things you like because it pushes you to think about your work in a different way than just saying all the things you don't like.

1. The vertical division of purple space (with the lighter purple at the top)
2. The swirl thing in the right corner.
3. The texture on the love.

Dislike
1. Placement of love
2. Values are too similar between the wording and the background.

I like the second one better from a balance standpoint.

Flyer for Nickel and Dimed

Question

What does a steamroller, skateboard and break dancing all have in common? Monoprinting, obviously!

Read article:
That's a big print you have there! (That's not the official name.)

Composition Article Download

Artist Janie Gildow wrote an article on composition for the Creative Catalyst newsletter. It breaks everything down and is really quite helpful. You can download it here (copy paste the link):

www.ccpvideos.com/docs/Gildow_Comp_Article.pdf

Janie is hoping to start teaching online classes specifically on composition within the next year so check in occasionally with her website (http://janiegildow.com) for more information. There isn't anything up quite yet, but it's still worth looking around at her amazing work.

To see a preview of Janie's Creative Catalyst DVD workshop go here.

Thanks Janie!

CCP Web Promo 2008

I'm getting a little conscious that this is becoming a blog more of video than words and images. This is in large part because my visual creative outlet right now *is* work. I divide my free time into mostly one big pile called, "Nickel and Dimed." Whatever is left (and there isn't much) goes into the "Forage for Food" pile or the "Make a Path Through The Debris in My Apartment" pile. At some point in August I will come back full force with actual non-moving 2D work.

Conversations with Nicholas Simmons Part 3

Here's another clip from Conversations with Nicholas Simmons. In this segment he talks about why it's good for beginning artists to use their imagination as their source material.

Love

You can get some cool effects when you use cheap paper and cheap paint. You can also get your arms covered in purple and have to do a quick but thorough interrogation of your kitchen and make sure you're not leaving droplets of purple water behind with your never-to-be-seen-again deposit.

Weekend Play

This project was going really well until the very end. It was suppose to be a congratulations card for some friends in a local play, but now we'll see. I got lazy with Claudine Hellmuth's Petroleum Jelly technique and didn't get it wiped up enough. I kept thinking if I just covered it with enough gel medium it would be OK. Nope. Bad instinct there.

I am excited about a few new techniques I'm trying. More on that later. In the mean time, if you don't have Claudine's books or DVDs they are certainly all INCREDIBLY helpful. (If you follow the instructions...ahem.) If I could find the rubbing alcohol I bought 2 days ago my night will be set.

Paper Flower Magnet Tutorial

I now understand a bit better what our artists must go through when they come here to film a DVD workshop. I've heard the hardest part is when we send them the check disc and they see themselves on the screen for the first time. Yeah....I get that now. The above is me (sans camera A :)

Dayle Doroshow in France (lucky!)

If you look really closely you can see Dayle Doroshow taking pictures!

OK, maybe half of that isn't true, but Dayle is currently in France to teach a workshop. She went early to soak France up a bit before beginning her classes.

See what she's up to by checking out her blog.

Have a great time Dayle!

Conversations with Nicholas Simmons Part 1

Nicholas Simmon's DVD workshop "Innovative Watermedia" is still a few weeks out (which means people can still pre-order and save $5 :) but we have a few goodies for people while they wait. Nick talked about a bunch of interesting issues that we had to cut from his DVD due to time restraints so we will be posting them over the next few weeks. It's audio only so sit back, relax, and take a listen.

Three Day Weekend

This has been a crazy week here at work. I've been coming in really early so that I have time to exercise and eat before 6PM play practice. This always seems like such a good idea at the start of the week, but by the end of it I'm dragging my half conscious body toward the finish line. So the best three words a person could hear at this point? Three Day Weekend. OK, so really, "You! giant raise!" wouldn't be bad either but well, in that that's not happening, Three Day Weekend is wonderful.

My brain has also been going a million miles a minute on craft projects I want to try. When I'm in a play the crafts get pushed to the back burner. I just build up ideas on random pieces of paper I hopefully can find later. The three day weekend means that I will have some time to play around in my paint and glue. I think this will be good for my soul.

Enjoy and see you Tuesday!

Summer

Buttons

Nicholas Simmons Countdown Begins!

We have begun the countdown for Nicholas Simmons's DVD workshop, "Innovative Water Media." We just approved the check disc, which means the DVDs will arrive in our warehouse in about 3 weeks!

"Innovative Water Media" is going to be a great learning tool for water media artists of all stripes. Nick takes aspects of the medium that people usually try to avoid and incorporates them into his own style. Water media artists usually think of blooms, crawl-backs and puddling as signs of a ruined painting but Nick takes them and makes incredible textures.

We are also working on some Nick web extras so more info to come soon.

Little Less Confusion

I had a couple of friends ask me why I had chickens on everything. (I have 2 more web spaces beyond this blog, and I had chickens on those too.) So for less confusion, here are some houses. Nothing fancy but every pattern in it is mine. Very very simple so far, but a girl has to start somewhere. I'm really looking forward to the day I have a large library of my own patterns to choose from. Until then I suppose it takes a little every day.

Carl Dalio Sale

Ready for a quick brush up on your perspective and composition? Watercolorist Carl Dalio, NWS, AWS, presents eight complete lessons on perspective and composition his watercolor DVD workshop, "Sketching in Perspective - Drawing and Composition."

Check out Carl's watercolor DVD workshop, "Carl Dalio on Color Power."

Sherri Haab

Sherri Haab, artist of many-genres extraordinaire, answered a question put to her by a blog carnival. The question was: If you suddenly became wealthy and didn't have to sell your jewelry anymore for income, would you still sell it? Would you still make it? and why?

So interesting!

Here's how Sherri answered:
If I was wealthy and didn't have to sell my jewelry I would still make and sell it because I do it for enjoyment. However, I would approach jewelry making from a different perspective....

(read more)

Vintage Photos

Cora from Paper Flowers found some great old photos at a flea market and is kindly posting them every Saturday to use. She only asks that you link back to her blog so that everyone can enjoy the art.

Thanks Cora!

I'm trying to slowly start using only my own pattern designs in my vector work. I've more or less got polka dots and lines down, but I still don't have a selection of even those to browse through. I don't have any patterns I really like that use damask or paisley.

Anthony on a Train is getting closer (although still a far cry.) I moved the door left and I gave him a seat. (Originally he was floating.) Way too busy.

The one part I'm really happy with seems so insignificant but it's the first time I've used color theory in my work. The book is two colors. The page that is farther away is actually a slightly bluer (cooler) turquoise. If you put a warm color and a cool color next to each other, the cooler color recedes.

I was cast in a local play and I'm trying to make little vectors of the various characters. I'm finding it really hard. I took a picture of myself from the shoulders up and vectored it. Then I tried to put that head on a cartoon-like body. So did not work. Next I made the eyes a little less realistic. I want these to be cute cartoons, but as my friend pointed out I look like a man. I've never been mistaken in real life as a man so I think it's fair to say I shouldn't as a cartoon either. What works in 3-D (Oh look, it's Kelly, a *woman*) sometimes doesn't work in 2-D. The one on the far right is the final attempt for the time being. This is going to take a few tries.

Lesley Riley Sale!

Bring your family and your art together with Lesley Riley's "Exploring Fabric Collage." In this DVD workshop you will discover the wonders of creating a fabric altered book. Combine easy to find materials with your favorite family photos to make great gifts for Mom and Grandma. Lesley shows you the entire process, from selecting your fabrics to transferring images. This project is great with kids, and you will be able to finally use that scrap cloth you've been holding onto for ages.

Keeping Up with Lesley Riley

Mixed media artist Lesley Riley has a lot going on these days. She did an interview with ZNE BlogTalk Radio and recently announced that she will have a piece in Cate Prato's book, "Mixed-Media Self-Portraits: Inspiration & Techniques."

Keep up to date with all things Lesley by bookmarking her blog. (Of course you can also check back here as well :)

Venti no foam skinny vanilla latte

It seems like such a simple affect but not so to the novice coffee-stain-creator. So here is my first attempt at coffee-stain-dom. Usually when I see this mark in real life it's followed by a groan. Or, "I'm sure the IRS won't mind too horribly."

I need to remove some globs at either end of the spiral, but I think I'm on the right track.

**A friend just saw this post and emailed me to comment that his coffee stains normally don't swirl. As soon as I read it I realized how obvious his observation was, but I would have never gotten there without his email. Thanks George!

Redesigns

A few Fridays back we had a long meeting about how to make aspects of our company better. I love this about small businesses; Individuals' opinions matter. (Including our customers'. I think it would surprise people how we all read almost every comment that comes through email or comment boxes on our site.)

One of the improvements from that meeting is our Artist Pages. Every DVD we produce has a page dedicated to the amazing instructors who come through Creative Catalyst Productions. We are trying to make those pages nicer in both layout and maneuverability. If you check the site, you might see even more changes. Let us know what works and what doesn't work. We really do take what people say into consideration.

Nickel and Dimed

Tonight is the third and final night of auditions for my local theater's production of "Nickel and Dimed." I am trying out, but even if I don't get a part, I will be helping out a bunch with publicity. Here are two blog headers I'm playing around with. I did them in Photoshop because I'm still more comfortable in that program. I know I should try and challenge myself to work in Illustrator but Photoshop still feels like home for these projects.

Dinner (and a) Show

I started this project some time ago but it was put on hold while an organizer was found. In that time I started learning Illustrator so what was originally a Photoshop project is now becoming an Illustrator one.

The little faces at the bottom look like they are possessed and I just realized I'm missing some, well, words. (Details.)

It's fun to be working on a project in the right program...not that I totally know how to use that program but I'm slowly mastering polka dots. This sounds like a small feat but in my small personal design world it's huge.

Craft Cat Header

I'm currently working on April's Craft Cat (the craft newsletter I get to do for work). One of my favorite (but also most frustrating) parts is the header. It's my favorite because I get to play around in programs I love. It's frustrating because I am not a graphic designer by training and I'm never sure if what I'm working on looks quite right.

Here's the evolution of this month's header. Normally I'd fly it past Lynn (who is our graphic designer/co-CEO) but she and Jim are currently in New York hanging out with John Salminen and George James. (She said it was 80 there...which is a far cry from our 60 and POURING here!)

Illustrator Practice

I haven't been working in Illustrator as much as I'd like to but here is the first step of a current project. I did the original vectors in Photoshop and then exported them out one by one (it needs a batch export feature) to Illustrator. I then had to line everything up again because objects shifted greatly during their trip between the two programs.

Next I will start playing with design, pattern and color.

Also, I need to fix the floating issue. I just realized that it looks like someone has the ability to levitate.

(Thanks Anthony for reference photo image)

Conscious Creation

Quilters have known this for a long time: fabric is amazing. This is a medium I, as a non-quilter, have begun to use more and more in my artwork. I love the versatility of pattern and texture and find myself staring at people's sofas and bed coverings wondering, ''How would that look on a card?'' I'm not alone in this area. The fabric arts is a growing medium. But what is the impact beyond the art world?

The answers aren't pretty. If you stack all the world's fiber needs into one pile, half of that pile would be cotton. Cotton doesn't exactly step lightly. It lives on 3% of the earth's arable land and, from that not-so-tiny corner, sucks up more than its fair share of chemicals. From the ground to the bolt, this plant sees chemicals of all kind: insecticides, bleaches and more. Cotton consumes one quarter of all insecticides used in agriculture. The cotton t-shirt I'm wearing is responsible for 1/3 of a pound of chemicals...imagine what my craft cupboard stash is responsible for...imagine how many pounds of chemicals are present in our favorite fabric shops or the textile section of Joanne's.

Spring Images

When the weather is good, Zach and I are able to ride to work. This week we will probably do zero of that in that Oregon's valley has been getting serious hail the last few days, but on one such non-hail ride I made him stop so I could take a picture. The geese migration is one of my favorite events every year. Unfortunately they cause complete HAVOC on the fields.

Hurrah! Produce!

Who's excited for spring? This girl! I thought Farmer's Market was suppose to start last week but apparently counting by sevens is more than my brain can handle and I was a week off. But the wait is over! It may be raining but my little town will be out in full force drooling over the fruits of our neighbor's labors. I'm hoping I'm brave enough to ask and take pictures of the produce for my vector work.

Workshop Announcement

You love Jacqueline Sullivan's DVD, now get to see her live! Jacqueline will be teaching two workshops at Art in the Loft in Alpena, Michigan next weekend. If you're in the area April 25-27, this is a great opportunity to learn great techniques from her DVD and also simple metal etching.

Want more information? Check out Art in the Loft's website or email: gallery109@artintheloft.com

This Week's Sales

Susan Bourdet is an acclaimed Audubon print and calendar artist. She has a background in biology as well as in art. Susan has made her living for the past two decades as an artist and author (two books in print). She is also a popular workshop instructor.

Susan's career as a professional artist didn't really begin until 1980, when she was raising her two children and needed to work at home. Trying to find her place in the art gallery scene, she joined a support group of nature artists and began to show her work in local galleries. In 1989, her paintings were discovered in a Portland gallery by Wild Wings. She now has over sixty limited editions and her work is featured in a yearly songbirds calendar!

In these two workshops, Susan takes inspiration from the nature around you. She teaches you not only how to paint birds and flowers but how to achieve various textures such as wood, fur and rust.

Check out, "Inspiration from the Garden" and "Bold and Beautiful: Backyard Wildlife in Watercolor."

Playing Around

Yikes! OK, yes, this does a number on the eyes. Too busy. I was trying something with not a lot of time to play. The profile is how I want it. Now it's just a matter of pattern/color combinations.

Flowers for Your Lens

There is an obvious point to product photography: to sell a product. ("Oh look, a candy bar! Yes please!") I get that. But some product photography, especially when the product is a piece of art, goes beyond just showing the goods. The marketing tool becomes a piece of art in its own right.

Case in point: Rosenow Floral Design in the Bay area. This lovely company has some of the prettiest arrangements and photos of those arrangements I've seen. The owner, Erin, comes from an art school background and there is an eye for design in all aspects of the company (check out some of their cool vase options you have for example.)

Enjoy these lovely photo's, check out Rosenow's website and have a great weekend!

Does art have to be hard?

I often feel caught between the type of art I feel I should be doing (or think I want to be doing) and the type of art I actually enjoy doing. The latter is present moment:I enjoy doing it in the now. The former is future-oriented: if I work hard enough maybe someday I will be able to use acrylics and draw free hand (for example). I often distinguish between the two also on ease of process. If it's easy (still time consuming but I don't get hung up in technique) then I somehow discredit it because the art I think I should be doing isn't easy for me now..so ergo if the project is easy, it must not be what I think I should be doing.

Does this make sense? To me neither.

This Week's Sales

Two great DVD workshops go on sale this week. The first is Urania Christy Tarbet's, "Landscape in Pastel: Reflections of Monet's Garden." If you are wanting to learn how to do landscapes- especially waterscapes with the trickiness that is reflection- you might find this workshop really useful.

The second workshop on sale is Craig Nelson's, "Drawing a Duotone Portrait." Craig has done five workshops with us here and there's at least one more in the works. I'd never met him until he came out last fall. He was such fun to film. He's also an incredibly good teacher and just rolls with anything. He's sort a living-breathing art reference book (one with lots of personality). You can ask him anything.

Not Child's Play

Sometimes it takes several times back and forth across a lovely rug before I notice that I am walking atop art. Then, somewhat awkwardly, I stand in one place and just stare down. Art and history come together to create amazing beauty.

Unfortunately, this beauty comes at a cost to the tune of 300,000 child laborers often working in terrible conditions through out South Asia. The United States is the largest purchaser of rugs worldwide and many of our rugs came with the sweat of children.

In 1994, RugMark began changing the way the rug market does business. With backing from groups like UNICEF, RugMark certifies rugs to be child labor free. So the next time you or a friend are out looking to buy a beautiful piece of art for your floor, look for the RugMark tag. Your conscious can rest easy and you can help let the industry know that there is a demand for child free rugs.

To learn more about RugMark and the amazing programs they support, visit rugmark.org.

(all pictures used with permission of RugMark)

Monday Update

I love being TV shows on DVDs. I also love sleep. Those two things are not mutually compatible.

Today I'm back at Carla O'Connor's lovely workshop. I learn something every time I make a pass on the material (I'm on pass 4). What I'm learning though isn't simply technique, it's how to think about the work as a whole. How to weave together the parts to create something tighter overall.

On a work note: I think I'm getting better as an editor and that excites me. You know how sometimes you plateau and then you'll feel a little improvement bump? I got a bump with Carla. I'm learning to approach the material in a different way and it will make the workshops better as a whole. (Also, it will help make life easier for Z as he does all the editing work after me.)

(Image from Carla O'Connor's Workshop from Creative Catalyst Productions)

***Update*** Check out Carla's DVD workshop!

Sherri Haab's "Resin Jewelry"

After two absolutely beautiful days here in Oregon (including one day where Zach and I rode our bikes the 10 miles to and from work!) we are back into rain. On days with rain the answer is clear: resin!

Here's the trailer for Sherri Haab's "Resin Jewelry."